Transcript

In this video we're going to talk about some high level goals for the trailer and its takeaways. Thinking of the takeaways is another valuable way to consider what needs to be included in the trailer. Follow along on page 12 of the workbook.

One of the first things I do when critiquing a trailer is ask myself: "How would I describe what I just saw to a friend?" Another way I think about it is: "If I had to make a short social media post or livestream chat comment about this trailer, what would I say to sum it up?" 

This simple exercise is especially good at revealing whether or not your trailer is saying too much. A lot of people try to jam pack their trailer with content to the point that there are no stand out ideas. Most of us aren't going to watch a trailer and then tell a friend something as long as: "Did you see that single player game with a medieval setting, light RPG elements, 12 boss battles and 30 hours of content?"

Our brains like to simplify things to make ideas easy to digest and when it's difficult to simplify we're likely to avoid making the effort at all. But we're much more likely to make a comment if there's a trailer with one or two very easy to see and repeat ideas like: "Did you see the game with the goose!?" or "Did you see the cyperpunk game where you play a rideshare driver??"

Find one or two things you'd love for people to be saying after they saw the trailer, the more unique and identifiable to your game the better like "Oh my god, did you see the game with [this thing]!?" The clearer the idea the better, which is why it's best to focus a trailer around only a small handful of ideas which get fleshed out very well.

In the next video I'm going to share a bit of my philosophy about press and review quotes in game trailers.